I agree with some of that. I mentioned the dependently typed programming language as one technology to know when I am being inconsistent. It doesn't mean I stop everything to resolve the inconsistency, but I might point the headlights in some other direction to avoid the inconsistency (breadth first search instead of depth first). Inconsistency finding is a tool, and preferably a semi-automated one.
I'd rather have the option of being a depth first searcher and not worry about shelter and food and health care. I'm not talented enough to be among the small number of people that can survive (adequately) doing that sort of thing. I think I wouldn't even like it in general, even if I were. I don't like being the person that says something is irrelevant because everything is irrelevant. I'd like to be a freak among billions of freaks that all admire the accomplishments of other freaks. This is not the world we live in, though. -----Original Message----- From: Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com> On Behalf Of u?l? ?>$ Sent: Monday, October 4, 2021 10:16 AM To: friam@redfish.com Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Newborn Heart Rate OK. But academia is in serious trouble, not least exhibited by the rise of populism and anti-intellectual distrust of those who might be attracted to depth-first search. Another story: At the last salon, an entomologist asked me "Why do you know so much philosophy?" My guess is he was actually trying to politely criticize my incessant concept-dropping, referring to oblique discussions that only occur amongst such depth-first people. The answer is I don't know any philosophy. I'm the worst kind of tourist, trampling endangered species while snapping selfies on my iPhone. But the deeper answer is that we don't need the academy anymore. What we need are social safety nets that facilitate the diverse exploration of the information field splayed out before us. If an unemployed snowboarder wants to do the work to propose a new theory of everything, so be it. I'm willing to sacrifice some of my income to help that happen, even if, or perhaps because it may eventually be found contradictory to some other ToE somewhere. But a consistency hobgoblin would nip that nonsense in the bud at the first hint of contradiction ... like a blankface academic advisor in some Physics department at some elitist institution. A focus on consistency is nothing more than subculture gatekeeping <https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Gatekeeping>. On 10/4/21 10:01 AM, Marcus Daniels wrote: > In some depth first search one might find a sub-problem that was uncrackable. > If it is one of 100 problems to solve, it is dumb to get hung-up on it, > especially if it is of no practical significance. But it is a problem that > will attract a certain kind of (autistic) academic attention as well. -- "Better to be slapped with the truth than kissed with a lie." ☤>$ uǝlƃ .-- .- -. - / .- -.-. - .. --- -. ..--.. / -.-. --- -. .--- ..- --. .- - . FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn UTC-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ archives: 5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ .-- .- -. - / .- -.-. - .. --- -. ..--.. / -.-. --- -. .--- ..- --. .- - . FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn UTC-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ archives: 5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/
